As a race we will work it out. We will work it all out, given enough time. Islam will be pacified. It must or there will be no progress. Mankind will be stuck, eternally in the 6th century. No, Islam will be pacified, much as Christianity was in the Middle Ages. Just as Judaism was in the first century a.d. by the early Roman Empire.
The world will become a melting pot, very similar, I believe, to America in the 1910's. Robust immigrant zones, all sharing their cultures, and their genes, to the surrounding enclaves of locals. There is much we can gain from one another, if we would just learn to tolerate one another.
If only the Ionian Greeks had not been wiped out by superstition and the Great Library at Alexandria was not burned. We would be in the stars by now, of that much I am absolutely certain.
From my Stoa I can see the world as it will be in a thousand years. There will be no more death, though there will be another controversy rocking our species. Do we turn in on ourselves and live virtual lives within our vast networks of AI constructs or do we maintain our physical forms and explore the deeper waters of space around us. I am going to say that it will be a bit of both. I see some of us living electronic lives and some living physical lives. Each will have a role to play in that future society. Self-aware computers, but computers with a soul. Not the soulless artificial intelligences that we are developing today. Starships, homes, and cities will be guided by the human brain, accelerated to the speed of electrons. Electronic avatars that work side by side with their biological cousins.
I see a vast ring encircling the Earth, miles wide and thick, millions of floating islands, held together by gravity, housing 99% of the human race. I see towers, reaching from the surface to the ring, to allow for easy movement between the nature reserves and parks below. Without humans, new species may develop advanced, tool-making intelligence. It will be our job to encourage and shepherd those younger species.
I see a vast web of colonies that stretch into the asteroid belt and beyond. Domes on Mars and mining colonies on the outer moons. A massive web of human life, easily traversed by our electronic brethren. Biological humans laying the ground for the entire species to expand into the Oort cloud and beyond.
I see all of us living together in harmony. I see us implanted with all sorts of devices and gadgets to keep us connected with everyone else, as needed, and to perform the tasks and duties of the era. Politics and resource management will be accomplished through vast collections of individuals, determining need and benefit. More and more layers of civilization will accumulate over our savage upbringing.
A thousand years after that and we will be several species. Some of us will have adapted completely to our new environments. Those that live on Mars and the outer moons will adapt to those gravity fields and environmental conditions. There will be an electronic version of humanity, content to live as pure thought, either immersed in selfish fantasy or engaged in collective discussion and debate, perhaps a segment of them exploring the physical galaxy with their brothers. Others will be seeking out the stars, on vast ships, seeking new worlds to explore and colonize. The travel times will have little relevance as I believe that natural, biological death will have been long since defeated.
Family, nationality, and culture will have long-since been redefined. We will have as much in common with the people of 3011 as those of 1011. Even less with those of 4011 then those of 11 a.d., the time of Augustus.
Those are times that I wish I could see. Likely, there will be a period where we bring our bigotry with us to the other planets and moons of our solar system. We may even wage wars on the scale of a solar system. Again, we will work it out, as we always have done.
With a wistful heart, I bade you good night from the Stoa.
Live well,
--Zavost
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